Frequently Asked Questions

Tenleytown & West End

8:30am - 5:45pm

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Old Town

8:00am - 6:00pm

When making enrollment offers, we look at a family’s preferred start date and child’s age, and how it aligns with the age group and timeline of the seat to be vacated. We prioritize siblings of currently enrolled families as well as when a family submitted their application. Because the vacancy may not be in your child’s age group or for your preferred time frame, and because families may transition programs while on our waitlist, it is difficult to provide an estimate of the number of families on the list for that spot.

Yes. We recommend you sign up for our waitlist here and we will contact you to attend a virtual info session, which includes a guided tour of the school, detailed information about our program and an opportunity for Q&A. In person tours may also be available, depending on the location you're interested in.

At Two Birds, we prioritize creating ratios that allow for greater individualized classroom instruction and care. While we always maintain a minimum of the required teachers in a room, we dedicate additional teaching support to each classroom above and beyond what is required by licensing standards. Additionally, we have other in-house specialized educators that provide instruction and support across the center, such as our Studio Teacher and Curriculum Coach.

We prioritize balancing classroom sizes and ratios to enable more individualized attention and small group work.

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Tenleytown & West End

Our infants and toddlers classrooms have a maximum of 8 children. Our preschool classes range between 12-16 children each and our Pre-K 3 and 4 classrooms accommodate between 16 and 20 children.

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Old Town

We frequently keep our classrooms smaller than is required. Our infant classrooms have a maximum of 8 children. Our younger toddler classrooms range between 10-12 children each. Our older toddlers and twos range between 12-15 children each and our preschool classrooms accommodate 20 children.

Yes. Families with children already enrolled are given first priority. We also provide a 5% discount off the eldest child when their sibling joins.

In addition to our regular curriculum offered during the school day, Two Birds provides weekend classes throughout the year for all ages. Some examples of programs that have previously been taken by students are Taekwondo, yoga and soccer. These classes give your child an opportunity to socialize with their classmates and for parents to meet each other. Weekend programming is currently exclusive to Two Birds members and is provided at no additional cost.

Meals are included, at no extra cost. They are served family style to foster a sense of community within the classroom and promote social development and agency within the children. The food is provided daily by our caterer Good Foods and final prep is done by our Kitchen Manager. We serve breakfast at 9:00am, lunch at 12pm, and afternoon snack at 3:30pm. Families can select the standard meal plan or a vegetarian plan.

Our toddler and older classrooms have outdoor time every day, weather permitting. This time typically falls in the morning between breakfast and lunch before or after small group classroom work and usually lasts around 45 minutes. Many classes will also go outside in the afternoon before pick up, especially when there is nicer weather, unless they are particularly focused on afternoon projects in the classroom. We do encourage the infant classrooms to go on walks outside as well, although this is much more dependent on napping and eating schedules that day within the classroom.

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Tenleytown

Children will typically go to the fields and/or tennis courts in Fort Reno Park. Teachers will bring various materials with them to encourage gross motor development, such as parachutes, balls, cones, hoops and more. Additionally, children will also use walks in the local neighborhood as a catalyst for learning and exploring while outdoors as well as bringing subject matter back into the classroom.

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Old Town

Children will typically go Buchanan Park as well as on walks in the neighborhood, which teachers use as a catalyst for learning, exploring outdoors and bringing subject matter back into the classroom. Preschoolers will also go to Buchanan Playground, which neighbors the park, and which Two Birds has received approval from the city and licensing to use at specific times.

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West End

Children will typically go to the fields neighboring School Without Walls at Francis Stevens. Teachers will bring various materials with them to encourage gross motor development, such as parachutes, balls, cones, hoops and more. Additionally, children will also use walks in the local neighborhood as a catalyst for learning and exploring while outdoors and bringing subject matter back into the classroom.

Two Birds is a year round school. Our curriculum, normal hours and daily routines continue through the summer, rather than switching to a summer camp format. We do close for Federal Holidays as well as some additional days throughout the year, such as for professional development and conferences. For centers located in DC, the Pre-K program follows the DCPS calendar closures, although Two Birds Pre-K continues through July and August. You can find our calendar linked here.

We are a full-time program, Monday through Friday. If you are concerned about the transition into the program, we can work with you on a schedule that gradually ramps up your child’s time in the classroom.

Two Birds uses an app called Brightwheel to communicate children’s daily routines and document examples of children at work in the classroom. Brightwheel also provides two-way messaging so that parents and caregivers can communicate directly with their child’s teachers and administrators. Parent / teacher conferences occur twice a year and incorporate ASQs (ages and stages questionnaires), which is a developmental screening tool, as well as student portfolios and classroom observations as the basis for those conversations.

At Two Birds, our teachers have a range of teaching qualifications and experience. Some have been in the field for decades while others are newer to the field. Similarly, we have teachers with bachelors or associates degrees in education or a related field, teachers with a CDA (a certificate in child development) and others who are working towards qualifications. When we create teaching teams within a classroom, we pair teachers with complementary skill sets, personalities as well as qualifications and experience.

All access doors into the center are permanently locked and accessible only via key fob. All members of our team, both classroom teams as well as center admin and support must complete background checks as part of the hiring process.

At Two Birds, we focus on the emergent aspect of the Reggio-Emilia approach which means that our program is adaptive and responsive to the individuals in the program at that time. Our teachers are continuously examining what is happening in the childrens’ environments and where they observe children’s engagement and curiosity, and using that as the subject lens through which to build their learning plans. This promotes student and teacher agency within the classroom and allows teachers to build upon project work as children’s interest deepens.

Two Birds believes that play is work for children. A play based approach to learning means that teachers layer learning skills and developmental goals into the play that is constantly occurring in the classroom. In a play based philosophy, there is still structure, intentionality and learning plans, but skills are layered into project work and play to create a more natural engagement for children. Our days begin with a morning meeting to introduce new topics and skills and materials are introduced through a combination of small group work and at various centers within the classroom.